Procrastination?

In these first days of the new year, millions of us will have embarked on a resolution for 2017.And maybe a good percentage will already have given up and decided that maybe the following year will be the time to finally write that bestselling novel.But why ...

....A decade after the start of the crisis, advanced economies still have not decisively pivoted away from a growth model that is overly reliant on liquidity and leverage – first from private financial institutions, and then from central banks. They have yet to make sufficient investments in infrastructure, education and human capital more generally. ...

....If agriculture is to be transformed into a safer, greener, fairer element of Britain’s post-Brexit economy, UK policymakers will need to change their approach radically. For starters, they must take action to protect the rural environment, ensure animal welfare, and improve education, knowledge transfer and business training for farmers and agricultural workers. ...

....“In light of the UK’s desire to increase trade with non-EU countries, the ongoing inability of our leading companies to attract and retain leaders from east Asian and African backgrounds should be a matter for serious concern,” he said. “The UK’s aspiration to be outward looking and open to business with the non-European world is hardly enhanced by the continued lack of challenge in the boards of our leading companies, still statistically and behaviourally dominated by men of similar cultural and educational backgrounds. ...

....The owners of Learndirect are continuing to win government-approved apprenticeship contracts despite their original company failing to meet the government’s minimum standards. The private equity owners of Learndirect Limited, which is expected to be given the lowest possible grade by the education watchdog Ofsted and to lose all its Department for Education contracts, created Learndirect Apprenticeships Limited, which has gone on to win contracts to train about 3,000 people. ...

.... Up to £250 can also be given to any number of people. With the soaring cost of tuition fees and university costs, Britons could consider using the allowance to give directly to grandchildren going into higher education, experts have said. ...

.... Admittedly – and you may think this a disqualifying factor – I have never been to Vancouver, or Melbourne, but I assume both to be full of couples in matching athleisure, mountain-biking home to a well-furnished townhouse to put the juicer through its paces …. The EIU is hamstrung by its own metrics: it uses five categories – stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure – to mark 140 cities out of a score of 100. ...

.... I think as a society we have to start talking about it,” Perrone said. “Our organization has decided that we’re going to try to provide as much educational opportunity as we can to give them the tools for whatever comes next. ...

.... This is despite the large and growing evidence base of the harmful social and economic effects of inequality. The Equality Trust is calling on the government to take into account the impacts of all of its decisions – from transport, to education to healthcare – on economic inequality. ...

....Those with financial support from parents and grandparents when they head to university stand the best chance of staying on top of their money, but even then it will not be easy. Many families fail to realise the financial burden a university education puts on their own finances, as well as those of their children. ...

....Get the fundamentals of looking after people right and you might not need that yoga class – indeed, there are some people who will never countenance pulling on Lycra at work. Brian Hall, managing director at the not-for-profit employee benefits agency BHSF, says: “The stuff that really matters is mental health, quick access to a GP and if necessary, a specialist, and next most important is education around for example, nutrition, hydration and improving your health. ...

....Learndirect, which was privatised by David Cameron’s coalition government in 2011 and is majority-owned by the private equity arm of Lloyds Bank, has said it could collapse into administration if the DfE withdrew its funding, which was worth £158m in the year to July 2017. After the DfE announcement, a Learndirect spokesperson said the Education and Skills Funding Agency “issues 12-month adult education budget contracts to the sector, with the current round scheduled to end in July 2018. ...

....Economists rightly celebrate the growth in prosperity that has marked the modern era. But ordinary working people are much better off than their Victorian forebears because they have better homes, better food, free education and healthcare, not because they have more money. ...

.... There is simply too much uncertainty for business and the City, with investment decisions being delayed, or investment plans being relocated to within the single market. And our treasured institutions, including the health service, higher education establishments and the arts, are already facing recruitment problems. ...

.... Their influence was at work throughout your article, which attempted to respond to their input without consideration of what has led to their present state. Decades of education have taught testable facts, rather than reasoned consideration or in-depth research. ...